EUROPEAN NATIONS. 2G9 bounded freedom of commerce and settlement to persons of all nations and religions. It need hard- ly be insisted, that the latter implies a right of pri- vate property in the soil, so unjustly and absurdly withheld from our countrymen in India, for with- out it the settlers would be no better than disreputa- ble vagrants, having no attachment to the land, nor to the government that afforded them protection. To establish, in all respects, a free government on a representative system, will be found, perhaps, im- practicable with the motley population, * of which such a colony would consist. To a representative body, however, the right of imposing taxes must be left, and, if the representatives are chosen alike from all the classes of inhabitants — if the elective franchise be confined to those who, by long resi- dence, have acquired the right of naturalization, and to persons of considerable estate, no danger from turbulence or anarchy can be apprehended. A pure and impartial administration of a code of laws suited to the state of such a colony, and adapt- ed to the peculiar character of its varied population, will form the most important branch of its admi- nistration. With respect to the duty of the chief magistrate.
- At Pcnang, it is reckoned that tlicre are twenty- two lan-
guages spoken, and at Batavia there are many more.
